Is there a way to get the name of a variable? PHP - Reflection

Question

I know this is not exactly reflection, but kind of. I want to make a debug function that gets a variable and prints a var_dump and the variable name.

Of course, when

Answer 1

Not elegantly... BUT YOU COULD FAKE IT!

• 1) Drink enough to convince yourself this is a good idea (it'll take a lot)
• 2) Replace all your variables with variable variables:

$a = 10
//becomes
$a = '0a';
$$a = 10;

• 3) Reference $$a in all your code.
• 4) When you need to print the variable, print $a and strip out the leading 0.

Addendum: Only do this if you are

• Never showing this code to anyone
• Never need to change or maintain this code
• Are crazy
• Not doing this for a job
• Look, just never do this, it is a joke